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A review by glenvisceration
Cover by Jack Ketchum
3.0
2.5 rounded up to 3. Didn't really gel with me.
It's clear from the beginning (especially from the introduction, which I'm not sure every version has) that we're supposed to empathise witb or at least understand Lee and his shellshocked mind. I found that concept hard to get from this book for two reasons.
1. The majority of the story seems to be told from the perspective of a group of heavily dislikeable and fairly uninteresting characters (the victims) who basically all had the same personality in varying degrees. The story spent so long with them that it found it hard to actually get to know the veteran and his story. It largely felt less like a story about a man broken by war having a psychological break and this group being the unfortunate victims of a someone that needed help and more like a group of fuckheads being terrorised by a one dimensional bigfoot that knows guerilla warfare strategies.
2. When we are with Lee, he tends to be spending that time remembering his time in veitnam, which in theory would be where we are taught to sympathise with his position, but instead mainly shows us that he, and a lot of his comrades were just simply horrible people with little to no remorse or empathy themselves. Even when you get an insight into their thought processes, there's little there to give you much to empathise with.
It was fairly enjoyable as a mindless thriller but knowing that's not what it was going for in its core concept made it disappointing. It feels weird to say this given the obvious stylistic difference but everything Ketchum tried to achieve here, David Morrell already did better in First Blood.
It's clear from the beginning (especially from the introduction, which I'm not sure every version has) that we're supposed to empathise witb or at least understand Lee and his shellshocked mind. I found that concept hard to get from this book for two reasons.
1. The majority of the story seems to be told from the perspective of a group of heavily dislikeable and fairly uninteresting characters (the victims) who basically all had the same personality in varying degrees. The story spent so long with them that it found it hard to actually get to know the veteran and his story. It largely felt less like a story about a man broken by war having a psychological break and this group being the unfortunate victims of a someone that needed help and more like a group of fuckheads being terrorised by a one dimensional bigfoot that knows guerilla warfare strategies.
2. When we are with Lee, he tends to be spending that time remembering his time in veitnam, which in theory would be where we are taught to sympathise with his position, but instead mainly shows us that he, and a lot of his comrades were just simply horrible people with little to no remorse or empathy themselves. Even when you get an insight into their thought processes, there's little there to give you much to empathise with.
It was fairly enjoyable as a mindless thriller but knowing that's not what it was going for in its core concept made it disappointing. It feels weird to say this given the obvious stylistic difference but everything Ketchum tried to achieve here, David Morrell already did better in First Blood.